Title: A novel algorithm for virtual cellular manufacturing considering real life production factors

Authors: Dhanraj P. Tambuskar; B.E. Narkhede; S.S. Mahapatra

Addresses: Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, VJTI, Mumbai 400019, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769 008, India ' Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, VJTI, Mumbai 400019, India

Abstract: Virtual cellular manufacturing (VCM) has been evolved to improve the setup efficiency of cellular manufacturing systems without hampering the flexibility of job shop systems. In a VCM, resources are grouped logically at production planning and control stage to improve flow performance and production control even for unpredictable product mix. In this work, a novel algorithm is proposed using discrete particle swarm optimisation (DPSO) technique to design virtual cells considering processing time, operation sequence, routing flexibility, machine capacity, machine flexibility and demand. A numerical example from literature is used to illustrate the proposed algorithm. Benchmark problems of different size are tested for performance measures.

Keywords: cellular manufacturing systems; virtual CMS; similarity coefficient; discrete PSO; particle swarm optimisation; DPSO; group technology efficiency; GTE; system utilisation; manufacturing cells; setup efficiency; production control; virtual cells; processing time; operation sequence; routing flexibility; machine capacity; machine flexibility; demand.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2015.067479

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2015 Vol.20 No.2, pp.246 - 269

Published online: 17 Apr 2015 *

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